3D Projection Box Allows Users to Co-Create New Products [Video]

With 3D printing becoming more sophisticated and widespread, we’ll soon have all sorts of new products on our hands. But right now those objects have certain limitations. They’re a bit inert – you can’t see them in action – and once they’ve been fabricated, they’re stuck the way they are. There are limitations to color in 3D printing; the only material that Shapeways can use to print in color is called Sandstone, and it’s somewhat fragile in a way that can limit designs. There’s also the challenge of creating an experience that draws spectators in and creates an experience for potential customers.

The Ghost Box, using relatively well-worn technology, does just that, allowing customers to develop a relationship with a product where they feel like co-creators.

“Using projectors housed in a portable enclosure and providing control by a tablet or phone, our team sought to demonstrate how most any product of any size can be brought to life by projection with you as the director,” says Chad Hutson, the president and executive producer of Leviathan, the Chicago-based creative agency behind the Ghost Box. Users can use the tablet controller to rotate the object and change the patterns projected onto it, which use two projectors that work together to create a “Pepper’s Ghost” effect. This is the same dazzling theatrical illusion that i-D magazine combined with choreography at its relaunch party.

The company came up with the device as the culmination of several ideas it simultaneously pitched to clients. “When you want to prove something is possible, sometimes you simply have to build it,” said Hutson.